World Touring Car Championship
The World Touring Car Championship is an international touring car racing series organised by the FIA. It has had three incarnations, the first in 1987 , the second between 1993 and 1995 as the World Touring Car Cup and the third will begin in 2008. Modern Incarnation The World Touring Car Championship was born on the back of the success of the recently rejuvenated European Touring Car Championship. After a merger between the German, French, Italian and Spanish Touring Car Championships in 2002, the championship continued to grow in 2003 off the back of officially being taken over by the FIA and the dissolution of the British Touring Car Championship. For 2004, the series embarked on its first ever event outside of Europe when the championship visited the Okayama Circuit in Japan. Despite the first race being plagued by heavy rain, a large crowd was in attendance to watch Matt Emmens take two dominant victories for Alfa Romeo. With the 2004 event being deemed a success, a second was announced for the 2005 season. The event was originally scheduled to take place at Sportsland SUGO before financial difficulties prevented this from happening. The Okayama Circuit was drafted in as a replacement and, despite the last minute arrangements, another bumper crowd turned out to witness Anthony Reid taking two victories for Renault under clear skies. The announcement of the 2006 caught many by surprise. Alongside the now annual visit to Japan, this year scheduled for the Okayama Circuit, the FIA ETCC Race of Argentina was announced as the season finale with an ambitious night race at the Autódromo Juan y Oscar Gálvez in Buenos Aires. However, it wasn't too long before the championships first visit to South America was put in doubt as promoters ran in difficulties preparing the circuit for the unique experience of a night race. Within a month of the announcement, the layout had been changed from the longer, more popular No.15 circuit to the decidedly shorter and less impressive No.6 layout. The problems didn't stop there as the teams questioned the logistics required to move all of their cars and equipment from Okayama in Japan to Buenos Aires within the allotted timeframe. As costs began to spiral for the promoters, and the FIA became more impatient with the slow progress of upgrading the track, a decision was made to move the race to Brands Hatch under the FIA ETCC Race of Europe banner. As this was all going on meanwhile, the 2006 running of the FIA ETCC Race of Japan was a wash out, but, once again, crowds flocked in numbers to watch Matt Emmens take another two victories in difficult conditions. During the off-season between 2006 and 2007, it was declared publicly that the European Touring Car Championship would become the World Touring Car Championship from 2008. For 2007, only one fly away event was announced on the calendar, once again at the Okayama Circuit in Japan. Once again the paddock was greeted by an influx of rain, but a spirited crowd looked on as Markus Zelic took only his second win of the season in race 1 before James Thompson took a popular home victory for Honda in the second race. In November 2007 the calendar for the inaugural FIA World Touring Car Championship was revealed, with the championship expanding to 4 different continents. 4 new Non-European races were announced in Brazil, Argentina and Indonesia with the FIA WTCC Race of Japan being carried over from the ETCC alongside a second Japanese round at Sportsland SUGO. Champions |valign="top"| |}